Mailbag: Club grateful for Field of Honor support

May 28, 2010

The Field of Honor, with the planting of 1,776 American flags and commemorating Armed Forces Day, was not only a successful fundraising event, but a massive show of support honoring our men and women currently serving — or who have served — our country both in war and in peace. A steady stream of visitors stopped by the Exchange Club's information booth to dedicate flags to loved ones or to strangers, to seek more information, to volunteer, to assist, even for an hour, to post flags, tie ribbons, to place dedication labels on the ribbons.

People from all over Orange County, by the hundreds, strolled the Castaways Park paths and then stopped by to tell us their own personal story of their own personal hero. We could easily post a full page of interesting anecdotes.

The Exchange Club of Newport Harbor thanks everyone who took part in any way. We certainly want to acknowledge our mayor, the City Council and city staff for their personal and logistical support. We express great appreciation for the many sponsors and organizations for their contributions, and thank the Daily Pilot for its continual coverage of our event.

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Finally, we want to thank the Coordinating Committee and our own members who gave hours, days, weeks, to prepare and to present this outstanding Field of Honor to the men and women of our Armed Forces. What a privilege to have been part of this great community event.

Jerry Nininger

Chair, Field of Honor Coordinating Committee

The Exchange Club of Newport Harbor

Writer hasn't done his homework

After reading Ed Hepner's open letter to the governor of Arizona (Sounding Off: "Arizona gave in to just 20% of voters," May 22), I have concluded he has not read the new law, has not informed himself on the issue and continued on for half a page pontificating from Corona del Mar about the topic.

What's worse, the Daily Pilot published the letter.

Like U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder, President Obama and most people commenting on illegal immigration, they have not done their homework and looked at how illegal immigrants have affected our economy, schools, hospitals, medical services and criminal system. We are a nation of laws, and the government has ignored and not enforced these immigration laws since 1986.

The system is broken due to the lack of enforcement by our lawmakers and our government. If you don't enforce laws, you create a disaster. Once again the taxpayers are paying the bill for this in more ways than one.